When Sara Deveaux, the director of the Kravis Center for Excellence in Teaching, dropped in on robotics after school last week, she stayed 45 minutes. She listened to students giving feedback about a recent tournament, in which both teams qualified for the state competition.  

Open Classroom Week, observed this term during the week of January 27–31, is a time for teachers to observe other teachers and classrooms. Observe. Listen. Learn. Teachers also were invited to attend after-school activities. 

Here are some things that Kravis Center members shared during Open Classroom Week — as a microcosm of what all teachers who visited colleagues’ classrooms during the week gained from observing. 

Sara wrote to her colleagues that the discussion she witnessed was “masterfully led” by the robotics coaches, Larry Brackney, Jen Solomon, Lauren Riva, and Julie Hinchman. 

“It was interesting to hear the students share accolades of one another,” Sara said, “and then be equally comfortable sharing observed weaknesses and what they all need to work on. ... In this time of Generative AI, where it may be so tempting to skip the process and go right to product, I was reminded of the importance of process, of thinking, rethinking, and thinking again.” 

Ned Heckman, a science teacher and associate director of the Kravis Center, dropped in on the rehearsal of the Black Box production of The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail. “I am still thinking about this wonderful phrase that I heard [faculty member] Will Eggers use during his rehearsal,” Ned reflected. “He said to the kids: ‘Let's discover in the doing.’ It was a perfect metaphor for all the amazing teaching I'd witnessed in history, math, language, and science classes I was able to get to. It was so cool to see my colleagues letting students explore and learn on their own, trying out ideas, or exploring lines of thought.” 

Thinking and rethinking are at the heart of Open Classroom Week. No one has all the answers. And not every idea has to be big and bold. 

Sometimes the tips are small, such as Sara picking up on specific markers that work well on a whiteboard: “The colors are always bright, easily read from the back of the classroom.” Little things add up.

Sometimes the tips are simply reminders. Fiona Mills, an English teacher and assistant director of the Kravis Center, came out of two classrooms with reinforcement of the power of sharing personal experiences to engage students. Matt Johnson, an English teacher and assistant director of the Kravis Center, walked away reminded that the more explanation up front the better.   

Fiona wrote about a visit to English teacher Maggie Howes’s classroom, in which Maggie guided students through a workshop in writing drafts. “She began by sharing her own personal narrative rough draft and solicited feedback from her students on the revisions she had made from her previous version,” Fiona wrote. “Writing is a deeply personal act, as I am consistently reminded by my own students. Thus, as I watched her students' thoughtful responses, I was struck by Maggie's willingness to vulnerably share her work, thereby implicitly empowering her students to do the same. Maggie then grouped her students according to which stage of [the] drafting process they were in — a novel idea that I am going to replicate in my next draft workshop session.” 

Fiona also was taken by what she saw in a forensics class in which science teacher Tina Hamel “instructed her students on the basics of the stages of death.” 

“Tina capably drew upon not only her own time in law enforcement but also skillfully connected the concepts to recent news stories or local events to help her students better contextualize the sometimes abstract concepts of homicide,” Fiona wrote.  

Matt talked of spending time in Caroline Murphy’s World History class, where she was introducing students to their next project. “I was impressed by the way that she took the time to integrate a full understanding of the project into the class plan for the day,” he said. “I would imagine that each student felt confident walking away that they knew what they were being asked to do over the course of the next few classes as a result of Caroline’s careful and attentive introduction to the project. It showed me how a really effective introduction to the project can be part of the work in class — not just a few minutes at the end of class quickly reading through the assignment.” 

Observe. Listen. Learn. Open classroom ... open minds. 

“I had the opportunity to witness the enthusiastic and affirming language KC [Lawlor] uses with her students in Advanced Precalculus and the way in which she set up [the] lesson to allow students to move at their own pace, while checking in with her and helping partners along the way,” wrote Rachel Nisselson, an associate director of the Kravis Center and a Modern & Classical Languages teacher. “I was also impressed by the structures that Mike Armstrong had in place in CL Environmental Science in order to help students with their notetaking and to require that they interact with a variety of peers.”